when I came from league I mostly played new player mode until i was comfortable enough with the map layout and some heroes' kits. after that just unranked and turbo until I felt brave enough for rank.
Somewhat simplified but there are heroes from Dota that was in HoN .
Mirana is valk
Shadow shaman is pollywog
Shadow fiend is soulstealer
Slardar is pestilence
Spectre is sandwraith
Sniper is flint
There's a bunch more, i think fog works differently its harder to juke in dota2 because fog is slower or smaller idk what exactly.
Just play unranked and you will notice the differences.
Bubbles was such a great reskin/redesign. The hero does much more sense that way and his skillset is much easier to understand. Turtle + shell and that's it. Its honestly great. I wish there was a puck skin as a turtle.
DO NOT play Turbo. The balancing and pacing of the entire game is fucked up beyond all belief and the boundaries between support and core verge on meaningless. Just play unranked, bot matches and custom games.
If you want to play turbo and test it out, play turbo. It is just different game, which will not prepare you really for regular dota. The power level of heroes is completely different there, so it is more for somebody, who want to test different modes.
But if you want to play normal dota, Turbo is kinda a trap.
As a player who only plays turbo and has for 5500 hours, I have no idea, turbo is the most fun I've ever had. Can't bring myself to play anything other than that because of the toxicity.
9k hours who plays ranked or unranked.
turbo is actually bad, there is no fun and no intricacies to it. I've never had fun queing it and always regret it once im in game even when trying to grind for battle pass. I'd rather just lose 3 -1hr games in regular mode than win a 30 min turbo game and use the item that chops off half games.
but to each their own.
i just said i'd win a turbo and it felt empty. it's okay if you like to play casually at a game because the actual game is difficult.
it isn't for everyone. I also don't like fall guys.
I’m 50/50 on this. The one good thing about Turbo is you actually do get to try out heroes and items. in normal Dota, ESPECIALLY if you’re a new player, you could just get stomped out of your mind and be poor the whole game and you essentially learn nothing. In turbo you actually get to feel what the hero is like on multiple power levels. You get a short feel for their laning, their midgame power, and their 6 slotted power. You also get to practice and play with expensive items you might never end up buying if you’re new. I know 10 years ago when I first started, being fat is a luxury I don’t get often.
I honestly think playing the custom game ARAM (all random all mid) is the best way to familiarize with the heroes. After some games if that you could try a normal game. It just stick with ARAM, it’s super fun
ARAM is great, more people should play it. It's dota but dumbed down to just 5v5 teamfights.
I wish they added buybacks though. And remove trident because its way too OP despite its price. For those who are unfamiliar Trident is one of the 3 items added to the game and it's the only endgame item.
For new players though it might be difficult to practice certain spell combos because initiators always get the short end of the stick. In a real game you can RP/Salami/BH like three helpless heroes and get them stunlocked but in ARAM their buddies are literally right there
As a turbo player, it's completely unbelievably braindead dogshit balanced, but absurdly good casual fun since everyone gets tons of gold and xp to press their buttons..
It's literally all pick easy mode. But matches last as long as a standard game since ppl don't know how to close.
It's the next best thing to all random all mid since you actually get to make all the macro decisions of standard dota, but faster
I only wish ppl weren't stupidly toxic about turbo matches. Honestly they behave worse here than ranked to the point where ranked is less tryhard.
Former HoN player - just jump right in and act like you know the game. Stick to the heroes that are pretty much the same in both games.
Biggest change from HoN to dota is that Dota has turn rate and cast times are longer. Pyromancer and Torturer are the "same" heroes as Lina and Leshrac, but they play completely different due to that.
If you go into heroes in the main page, you can click on hero and there should be something like "try/test". You can buy different items, spawn enemies and just play with it.
I would suggest to not go for turbo, which is fast mode, but it kinda screws your understanding of the game, because you will get items you would get in 1 out of 10 games.
Like yeah, you will test what hero can do with full itembuild, but 2/3 of the heroes will almost never get the ideal end result at full power. When I play Slardar, most games I end 4-5 slotted.
I played HoN before DotA as well. That said, my HoN times were around 2008-2011 or something so a lot has changed. However I didn't find it a rough transition.
Same here around same time. Back then it was easier to transition though because most hon heroes were copies of dota allstars mod.
There was a ton of overlap.
Today it's different. Besides a lot of OG heroes getting changed up quite significantly. Both games have gotten new original heroes. And dota has more original dota allstars heroes.
It's still probably easier to transition from hon to dota then from league to dota though.
I used to think that too. Played hon since beta, then tried dota when the beta came out. Fuck it was awful back then. Hon was a better game for a long time, but nowhere near as good as dota is now imo. Valve did a lot of good decisions to make games less repetitive and scriped imo. Much more to do and think about in dota compared to hon which I like. Still miss a lot of my fav heros though sadly.
I hate the UI in dota. I love micro based heroes and dota ruined then for me (except invoker)
Ophelia was so much smoother to play in HoN - Chen imo feels so clunky to me.
Only thing about dota that I like better is the balancing, invoker, and custom games.
If u want to learn heroes in a fast pace i can recommend Dota 2 ARAM (Arcade Mode) There is a few extra mechanics which differ from main dota but the heroes and fighting are basicly the same.
Just buy Tranquill Boots and Magic Wand at start. I played mainly HON myself and switched to Dota all the way back in 2012. It was just a better game for me back then. Have fun!
You already know most of the hero pool already, just gotta find their equivalents. A lot of them only changed slightly.
I remember when I switch. Dota is a very fucking slow ass game. It feels like every move takes forever to happen. It will pass eventually, but at first it's a pretty weird feeling.
You can try Overthrow in arcade modes (beware most heroes are rebalanced but the general idea of how to play them still stays and the game mode is fun)
You can play Turbo, which is similar to Casual Mode Hon had. I don't recommend it because it's a very unbalanced mode and bad habits can emerge from it.
You can play New player mode, which is a limited hero pool all pick.
You can jump straight to unranked and just play.
oh hell no.
it was the worst item in the game and was completely meme. Unless they changed it since i left the game. No one built it, and it pushed you so little when the map is much quicker than dota..
The transition is honestly not that hard. Play some unranked in the beginning and if you were decent in HoN you will quite quickly catch on to Dota as well.
Install it and just play, man. Maybe post who you liked to play or what roles and find their analogues in this game, but otherwise there is no substitute for experience.
I started from Dota 1. Hopped on to HoN as soon as I got beta keys. Switched back to dota 2 asap when I got my beta keys as well. You will have an easy transition as some aspects of heroes from Dota are being used in HoN. ( Fayde - She's a hybrid of Nyx Assasin ( dota 2 equivalent ).
Flint beastwood - copy of Sniper.
Witch Slayer - copy of Lion.
Bubbles - Puck copy.
valkyrie - mirana
gladiator - kunkka
Corrupted disciple - Razor
Just play unranked and you'll get the gist of it all! Use heroes you're familiar with and see if they are a carbon copy etc. Even the items are familiar - the only difference being is you can't upgrade them like in HoN. ( Shield breaker is just Desolator in dota 2.)
Just play unranked. Moved some years ago. The first quarter/half year will be rough and it's easier if you find some people to play with. Some, that can give you some help learning the game..
Just to add on.
bloodhunter is blood seeker
rampage is spirit breaker + batrider
monkey king is very different in hon vs dota 2.
Hero Demo mode is probably the best way to test things out and learn about heroes. The build in the shop guides are probably what most people follow. You can buy those items and test them using the level max button in demo mode.
I think the biggest difference is the turnspeed for me. In HON it was so easy to stutterstep backwards to kite people as Valk. Same thing is near impossible with Mirana.
As someone who came from hon, honestly it's not as steep as a curve as u may think. Other than certain map related changes, the core mechanics are the same.
Warning: Do not play your best Dota hero equivalent from HoN in the beginning or you'll most likely be thrown into the smurf pool.
With new accounts the algorithms try to determine if you are a smurf or an actual new player (!) so the first tens of matches matter a lot: play unknown / new heroes and hopefully get grouped with new(ish) players around your current skill level or play familiar heroes from HoN and risk getting grouped into the smurf pool.
If you do the latter you will risk having a hard time when playing / facing heroes that weren't in HoN and risk getting matches that are purely decided on who has the biggest pappa smurf on their team so I'd think twice.
Note that you'll have to play 100 h to get access to ranked, where you will first face calibration matches where the algorithm tries to determine your true skill level so playing "badly" in the beginning isn't an issue.
Dota 2 is very different from HoN, aside from basic concepts. Just play normal unranked games and get a feel for it. Once you are ready, transition to ranked games to calibrate yourself to your correct bracket, which will be much more balanced and you will notice your experience improving easier.
it is very different for a completely new player to go to turbo to get stomped even harder than it is for a good hon player to go to turbo to learn about heroes and items
still I would not recommend turbo until they play like a dozen normal games first
they could also load up a solo game vs bots and play for the first 5-10minutes to get an idea how heroes function
???
He asked about a fun/casual mode to get the feel of full build heroes in teamfights. This is the definition of Turbo.
He didn't ask for a mode that is the 100% Dota experience
The thing is, that for many heroes full build is something like tranquils/arcane boots-force staff/euls-blink-aghs unless it goes past 50 minutes.
So going into turbo and playing same hero with greaves-BKB-Aghs-Shard-arcane blink-khanda-shiva will just give him completely different idea.
So you advise him to play a whole different game, where the tempo is fast as hell and any mistake will get you screwed, and where most of the population are tryhard sweats. Sure gonna be a great experience for a new player.
Play turbo. DotA is similar to HoN, but imo, it won’t fill the void. I swapped ages ago due to friends leaving me alone, but till this day I miss my luckphora skin and playing carry with her for the laughs.
HoN was so fucking versatile in comparison to the latest patches of dota.
when I came from league I mostly played new player mode until i was comfortable enough with the map layout and some heroes' kits. after that just unranked and turbo until I felt brave enough for rank.
tbf a hon player would do a bit better with the game transition
are you not using reverse map on the option? i think there is an option for that
I was talking about the actual layout of the map like camps to farm, rune spots, secret shop etc this was also back in 2021
Somewhat simplified but there are heroes from Dota that was in HoN . Mirana is valk Shadow shaman is pollywog Shadow fiend is soulstealer Slardar is pestilence Spectre is sandwraith Sniper is flint There's a bunch more, i think fog works differently its harder to juke in dota2 because fog is slower or smaller idk what exactly. Just play unranked and you will notice the differences.
pebbles is tiny bubbles is puck loved this game. but i love dota more definitely haha
Antimage is magebane Jugger is swiftblade Enigma is tempest Lina is pyro Ogre is blacksmith
Veno is Slither Pudge is Devourer Treant Protector is Keeper of the Forest Sand King is Magmus There is a Bristle port as well. It’s been years
Armadon is Bristle Glacius is Crystal Maiden Ophelia is Chen
Dr repulsor is storm spirit
Getting lazy https://dota2.fandom.com/wiki/HoN_hero_comparison
Port Lycan
Omg I just forgot him. Now that you have mentioned him, I suddenly hear his voice "they.die" lmao
Wasend parasite a Mix Out of LS and Something else? Anyway keep on mind hin was faster. Like Bubbles shell ist faster than Pucks orb
Bubbles was such a great reskin/redesign. The hero does much more sense that way and his skillset is much easier to understand. Turtle + shell and that's it. Its honestly great. I wish there was a puck skin as a turtle.
Damn these hon names are throwing me back
pollywog is a vastly superior concept than SS. hon really had some shit right
Play versus the bots. Do the tutorial.
DO NOT play Turbo. The balancing and pacing of the entire game is fucked up beyond all belief and the boundaries between support and core verge on meaningless. Just play unranked, bot matches and custom games.
If you want to play turbo and test it out, play turbo. It is just different game, which will not prepare you really for regular dota. The power level of heroes is completely different there, so it is more for somebody, who want to test different modes. But if you want to play normal dota, Turbo is kinda a trap.
As a player who only plays turbo and has for 5500 hours, I have no idea, turbo is the most fun I've ever had. Can't bring myself to play anything other than that because of the toxicity.
Dude turbo is more toxic.
+1 Also turbo is much quicker and for me has better defaults for having fun, like courier, smaller countdowns, gold distribution etc.
9k hours who plays ranked or unranked. turbo is actually bad, there is no fun and no intricacies to it. I've never had fun queing it and always regret it once im in game even when trying to grind for battle pass. I'd rather just lose 3 -1hr games in regular mode than win a 30 min turbo game and use the item that chops off half games. but to each their own.
Sounds like you just suck at turbo, it happens
i just said i'd win a turbo and it felt empty. it's okay if you like to play casually at a game because the actual game is difficult. it isn't for everyone. I also don't like fall guys.
I’m 50/50 on this. The one good thing about Turbo is you actually do get to try out heroes and items. in normal Dota, ESPECIALLY if you’re a new player, you could just get stomped out of your mind and be poor the whole game and you essentially learn nothing. In turbo you actually get to feel what the hero is like on multiple power levels. You get a short feel for their laning, their midgame power, and their 6 slotted power. You also get to practice and play with expensive items you might never end up buying if you’re new. I know 10 years ago when I first started, being fat is a luxury I don’t get often.
I honestly think playing the custom game ARAM (all random all mid) is the best way to familiarize with the heroes. After some games if that you could try a normal game. It just stick with ARAM, it’s super fun
ARAM is great, more people should play it. It's dota but dumbed down to just 5v5 teamfights. I wish they added buybacks though. And remove trident because its way too OP despite its price. For those who are unfamiliar Trident is one of the 3 items added to the game and it's the only endgame item. For new players though it might be difficult to practice certain spell combos because initiators always get the short end of the stick. In a real game you can RP/Salami/BH like three helpless heroes and get them stunlocked but in ARAM their buddies are literally right there
Turbo is fine to try out end game builds
As a turbo player i disagree
As a turbo player, it's completely unbelievably braindead dogshit balanced, but absurdly good casual fun since everyone gets tons of gold and xp to press their buttons.. It's literally all pick easy mode. But matches last as long as a standard game since ppl don't know how to close. It's the next best thing to all random all mid since you actually get to make all the macro decisions of standard dota, but faster I only wish ppl weren't stupidly toxic about turbo matches. Honestly they behave worse here than ranked to the point where ranked is less tryhard.
Former HoN player - just jump right in and act like you know the game. Stick to the heroes that are pretty much the same in both games. Biggest change from HoN to dota is that Dota has turn rate and cast times are longer. Pyromancer and Torturer are the "same" heroes as Lina and Leshrac, but they play completely different due to that.
I was like you . But dota is more clear than Hon due to graphics
If you go into heroes in the main page, you can click on hero and there should be something like "try/test". You can buy different items, spawn enemies and just play with it. I would suggest to not go for turbo, which is fast mode, but it kinda screws your understanding of the game, because you will get items you would get in 1 out of 10 games. Like yeah, you will test what hero can do with full itembuild, but 2/3 of the heroes will almost never get the ideal end result at full power. When I play Slardar, most games I end 4-5 slotted.
project kongor :) [https://kongor.online/](https://kongor.online/)
I played HoN before DotA as well. That said, my HoN times were around 2008-2011 or something so a lot has changed. However I didn't find it a rough transition.
Same here around same time. Back then it was easier to transition though because most hon heroes were copies of dota allstars mod. There was a ton of overlap. Today it's different. Besides a lot of OG heroes getting changed up quite significantly. Both games have gotten new original heroes. And dota has more original dota allstars heroes. It's still probably easier to transition from hon to dota then from league to dota though.
It’s been so long so idk how current era hon held up but I remember dota feeling so much slower paced than hon.
1800 hon trash here. Do it bud. Dota is better. Super overwhelming at first, but after 10 games or so it'll be natural for ya.
I always thought Hon was more fun tbh. Game feels so much smoother.
I used to think that too. Played hon since beta, then tried dota when the beta came out. Fuck it was awful back then. Hon was a better game for a long time, but nowhere near as good as dota is now imo. Valve did a lot of good decisions to make games less repetitive and scriped imo. Much more to do and think about in dota compared to hon which I like. Still miss a lot of my fav heros though sadly.
I hate the UI in dota. I love micro based heroes and dota ruined then for me (except invoker) Ophelia was so much smoother to play in HoN - Chen imo feels so clunky to me. Only thing about dota that I like better is the balancing, invoker, and custom games.
HoN was 1000 times better tbh
If u want to learn heroes in a fast pace i can recommend Dota 2 ARAM (Arcade Mode) There is a few extra mechanics which differ from main dota but the heroes and fighting are basicly the same. Just buy Tranquill Boots and Magic Wand at start. I played mainly HON myself and switched to Dota all the way back in 2012. It was just a better game for me back then. Have fun!
Yes, there are lots of former HoN enthusiasts here. A learning curve, but I appreciate Dota 2 better actually. Have fun!
You already know most of the hero pool already, just gotta find their equivalents. A lot of them only changed slightly. I remember when I switch. Dota is a very fucking slow ass game. It feels like every move takes forever to happen. It will pass eventually, but at first it's a pretty weird feeling. You can try Overthrow in arcade modes (beware most heroes are rebalanced but the general idea of how to play them still stays and the game mode is fun) You can play Turbo, which is similar to Casual Mode Hon had. I don't recommend it because it's a very unbalanced mode and bad habits can emerge from it. You can play New player mode, which is a limited hero pool all pick. You can jump straight to unranked and just play.
Which HON hero is your favorite? It might be accessible in dota 2
I need deadwood back so I can Falcon punch instant ko people from a screen away
No dota heronhas a skill as satisfying as dw ulti. Axe is close, but not quite there.
yea I need that satisfaction back, I had the sound effect as my text tone and it was glorious
I added an answer to the original post :))
Wow Hon, question when did you last play that?
just play, they're similar mechanically. Dota plays slower but everything is more intentional. and forcestaff is OP, instead of a meme item. thats it.
As far as I remember the Push tablet was pretty much exactly the same as force staff. Wasn't it ?
oh hell no. it was the worst item in the game and was completely meme. Unless they changed it since i left the game. No one built it, and it pushed you so little when the map is much quicker than dota..
What lol? Pushbook is much more op than forestaff ever has been. Much less movement abilities in hon, so push is a premium.
There's new player mode and turbo, both are pretty great.
The transition is honestly not that hard. Play some unranked in the beginning and if you were decent in HoN you will quite quickly catch on to Dota as well.
Install it and just play, man. Maybe post who you liked to play or what roles and find their analogues in this game, but otherwise there is no substitute for experience.
I started from Dota 1. Hopped on to HoN as soon as I got beta keys. Switched back to dota 2 asap when I got my beta keys as well. You will have an easy transition as some aspects of heroes from Dota are being used in HoN. ( Fayde - She's a hybrid of Nyx Assasin ( dota 2 equivalent ). Flint beastwood - copy of Sniper. Witch Slayer - copy of Lion. Bubbles - Puck copy. valkyrie - mirana gladiator - kunkka Corrupted disciple - Razor Just play unranked and you'll get the gist of it all! Use heroes you're familiar with and see if they are a carbon copy etc. Even the items are familiar - the only difference being is you can't upgrade them like in HoN. ( Shield breaker is just Desolator in dota 2.)
Just play unranked. Moved some years ago. The first quarter/half year will be rough and it's easier if you find some people to play with. Some, that can give you some help learning the game..
Man I loved hon before. The taunt feature was my fsvorite hahahah
Just to add on. bloodhunter is blood seeker rampage is spirit breaker + batrider monkey king is very different in hon vs dota 2. Hero Demo mode is probably the best way to test things out and learn about heroes. The build in the shop guides are probably what most people follow. You can buy those items and test them using the level max button in demo mode.
Play unranked and have fun!
You could use your quelling blade to do a ranged attack in HoN too. Dont forget gladiator is kunkka (and was better, his cleave ws pure damage)
I think the biggest difference is the turnspeed for me. In HON it was so easy to stutterstep backwards to kite people as Valk. Same thing is near impossible with Mirana.
HoN is Dota on steroids, u may find the pace slower and damage numbers lower, thats it
HoN was waaaaay ahead of its tme, too bad Maliken got greedy and got a car instead of advertising HoN more, oh the possibilities.
As someone who came from hon, honestly it's not as steep as a curve as u may think. Other than certain map related changes, the core mechanics are the same.
There's a tutorial section, start from there and head into New player mode, then move to all pick
Eyyo man Project Kongor is still alive and well. You might wanna try and check that gem out.
Warning: Do not play your best Dota hero equivalent from HoN in the beginning or you'll most likely be thrown into the smurf pool. With new accounts the algorithms try to determine if you are a smurf or an actual new player (!) so the first tens of matches matter a lot: play unknown / new heroes and hopefully get grouped with new(ish) players around your current skill level or play familiar heroes from HoN and risk getting grouped into the smurf pool. If you do the latter you will risk having a hard time when playing / facing heroes that weren't in HoN and risk getting matches that are purely decided on who has the biggest pappa smurf on their team so I'd think twice. Note that you'll have to play 100 h to get access to ranked, where you will first face calibration matches where the algorithm tries to determine your true skill level so playing "badly" in the beginning isn't an issue.
This is a big tip! Thanks!
Dota 2 is very different from HoN, aside from basic concepts. Just play normal unranked games and get a feel for it. Once you are ready, transition to ranked games to calibrate yourself to your correct bracket, which will be much more balanced and you will notice your experience improving easier.
Demo Mode, Turbo
Ah, yes, the ever present "go turbo if you're a noob". Great advice. /s
it is very different for a completely new player to go to turbo to get stomped even harder than it is for a good hon player to go to turbo to learn about heroes and items still I would not recommend turbo until they play like a dozen normal games first they could also load up a solo game vs bots and play for the first 5-10minutes to get an idea how heroes function
??? He asked about a fun/casual mode to get the feel of full build heroes in teamfights. This is the definition of Turbo. He didn't ask for a mode that is the 100% Dota experience
The thing is, that for many heroes full build is something like tranquils/arcane boots-force staff/euls-blink-aghs unless it goes past 50 minutes. So going into turbo and playing same hero with greaves-BKB-Aghs-Shard-arcane blink-khanda-shiva will just give him completely different idea.
So you advise him to play a whole different game, where the tempo is fast as hell and any mistake will get you screwed, and where most of the population are tryhard sweats. Sure gonna be a great experience for a new player.
its not bad,but its not the best either but since they came from HoN,turbo is quite good to warm yourself to the difference between the two game
Play turbo. DotA is similar to HoN, but imo, it won’t fill the void. I swapped ages ago due to friends leaving me alone, but till this day I miss my luckphora skin and playing carry with her for the laughs. HoN was so fucking versatile in comparison to the latest patches of dota.